To come to this conclusion, scientists at Peking University carried out an experiment on 50 students. Half the students were given a cup of black tea to drink, while the other half were given water. They were then asked to complete two different tests.

The first was a cognitive test that asked them to create a design out of building blocks. The other was to come up with a ‘cool’ new name for a ramen restaurant. The results were then judged by researchers on their creativity and design.

Twinings Tea Heir: You're Brewing Tea All Wrong5:21

When it comes to making tea, you may be doing it all wrong. Stephen Twining, a 10th-generation Twinings heir, and who drinks at least nine cups of tea per day, demonstrates the proper way to prepare tea on Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero. Photo: iStock

In the block building test, tea drinkers scored 6.54 points against 6.03 points for the water drinkers. While in the name test the tea drinkers scored 4.11 against 3.78.

Researchers believe this increase in creativity is tea’s ability to create a ‘positive’ mood which sparks the brain’s cognitive regions into life.

“This work contributes to understanding the function of tea on creativity and offers a new way to investigate the relationship between food and beverage consumption and the improvement of human cognition,” the report said.

Although tea contains caffeine and theanine, which are both associated with increased attentiveness and alertness, researchers pointed out that they usually do not take effect instantly.